President-elect Donald Trump's slate of nominees is on the path to confirmation, particularly after they met with members of the Senate, senior adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax on Friday.
"What we knew all along is once we get these nominees in front of the senators for their one-on-one meetings, that they would knock their socks off, they would show just how impressive they are and exactly why President Trump picked them in the first place," Miller told "Newsline." "That was our strategy."
Some of the full Senate committee hearings for confirmation will start in January, with some even before Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, he added.
"It's very clear that these folks that are coming in are bringing such an expertise level that they can effect the change that President Trump wants to bring right away on day one," said Miller. "So we knew all along, get them to their meetings, make sure that people know here is the support level behind them, the broad coalition."
The polling numbers are also "really good" for many of the nominees because they are the kinds of people Americans want to see in the government, he added.
"They want to see people like RFK Jr., who's going to come in and talk about things such as making America healthy again," said Miller.
Meanwhile, media reports are indicating that many Democrat leaders are refusing to attend Trump's inauguration, but they should be talking part, he said.
"As we saw this coalition that President Trump put together this past fall, he increased numbers with African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans," said Miller. "He had union voters, people from right-to-work states. He had this entire coalition coming together, including young people. He had all these great groups that came together."
That's because the vote for Trump was a "rejection of the past four years," he said.
"People didn't like the direction of the economy, didn't like what happened with the lack of security at the border," Miller said. "I think President Trump's cabinet nominees really reflect that ... they bring such qualified expertise from the outside and that's what people want. They want to see Washington shaken up a bit."
Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth in particular has faced a great deal of controversy, but Miller insisted he is the change the department needs.
"Here's someone who's received the two Bronze Stars," he said. "He's also served in combat. He's been in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This is someone who's literally been shot at on the battlefield. That's the type of person who I want leading the DOD because as we make these decisions about whether or not to put American troops into harm's way, I want someone who knows at a personal level what that's like before you go and send some young man or young woman into battle."
Finally, Miller commented on the drones that have been spotted over New York and New Jersey as well as other states and said he does not understand why the matter is not getting more attention nationally, especially after the Chinese weather balloon that passed over the United States in 2023.
"Americans want answers," he said. "Whether they're planes, whether it's drones, exactly what the case, the American people should have those answers and it needs to be communicated to them ... that's not something that we're going to tolerate once President Trump is back in office."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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